After the meal was prepared, the two sat around the dining table. Oliver opened the bottle of wine but showed no intention of offering a drink to anyone else, appearing as if he wanted to drown himself in alcohol.
"You're an incorrigible pessimist, always unable to see hope. If it weren't for the strong sense of mission that drives you, you'd be worse off than Constantine, a complete mess, because you understand how terrible this world is more profoundly than he does," said Jane as she took out her chopsticks.
"You need a very strong and persistent inspiration to stay motivated. You need your worldview to be profoundly shaken, to be deeply shocked before you can gather the strength to go further," she continued.
"Once, the dire situation in Mexico was your greatest source of motivation. You were deeply shaken by the sight of the underprivileged there, unable to feed or clothe themselves properly, and so you had a powerful urge to fight for them," Jane noted.
"But as you delved deeper into understanding the underbelly of this country, you inevitably came to realize a phenomenon: infighting among the lower classes. You saw clearly that the split within the Revolutionary Army wasn't just due to external sabotage, but also because they didn't understand unity. They were selfish and self-centered, only concerned with their own narrow interests and so ignorant that they were beyond help," she explained.
"You felt deeply disappointed by this, yet you felt powerless because human nature is just so. They had spent such long years in abject poverty that once they saw a glint of wealth, they would either greedily strive for more by any means necessary or simply indulge in pleasures, wanting nothing more than to rest on past achievements without doing anything else," she observed.
"You told them that this was not right, but they wouldn't listen to you. Thus, some dangerous thoughts started to sprout in your mind. You started to think they deserved it; you thought the current state of this country was the consequence of their own actions," she added.
"The passions that once surged through you started to fade away, followed by an indescribable emptiness. Your brain, too, was gradually consumed by this void, leaving you unable to think of any good solutions to the current predicament," she remarked.
"Natasha told you that they should be their own saviors. You agreed with this viewpoint but felt like you were using it as an excuse to run away," she said.
"You've had times when you were full of energy and passion, and now you feel as if you're just killing time. You wonder how much longer such a long wait will be," she sighed.
"But you know that even if there's a new Mexico waiting for you to save, you won't be as profoundly shaken as you were before. Because you know how many of those who live in hellish conditions will become wolves once their lives improve, changing from victims to perpetrators who harm their own kind," she explained.
Oliver drank glass after glass of wine, silently with his head bowed. The delicious meal before him couldn't beckon to him at all. He couldn't even feel any emotions within himself, just a sense of emptiness.
"You always project your own values onto others, hoping for the best, believing that human beings inherently possess compassion and kindness and that the mere sight of their compatriots' suffering will naturally turn rescue into their instinct, just like you," she mused.
"To delve deeper, you believe that everyone can be like you, seeing the urge to save as a driving force that neither requires education nor other material incentives to sacrifice everything for the cause," she elaborated.
"Logically, you know this is impossible, yet you constantly hope for it. This is the greatest tragedy of an idealist: when they realize the world will never operate as they imagined, in a correct, logical, and as-it-should-be manner, the overwhelming sense of loss that follows can crush them," she said.
"Am I ridiculous?" Oliver asked. "I've made too many unwise decisions because of this, like leaving Moscow on a whim, because it wasn't what I imagined."
"I thought I would find a land filled with ideals, but in the end, it felt more like a graveyard decorated with medals of honor," he confessed.
"So I turned down their offers, thinking they assumed I wanted to return to the front lines, but I didn't go back either," he said.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm being pretentious, like a naive child who can't accept even a glimpse of the world's dark side, retreating back into my shell to hide," he admitted.
"But the things I've seen are constantly eroding my passion and drive. I'd rather hide at home and avoid seeing anything than be ground to dust by this whirlpool one day," he expressed.
Jane sighed internally. Oliver was a person who would rather break than bend, an idealist who refused to bow down to the end.
He had the ability to live out his ideals, but the only problem was that his inner drive came entirely from emotional stimuli rather than rational thought.
He had to be shocked emotionally first and then could generate a surge of power. He didn't generate the motivation to act because he thought rationally it was beneficial.
These were two different kinds of people, with their own advantages and disadvantages. The former could generate incredibly powerful drives, even capable of working miracles, but once the emotional stimulus weakened, the ensuing powerlessness was inevitable. If trapped in negative emotions, they would spiral into a vicious cycle, just like Oliver was doing.
Rational and logical thinking is developed over years and doesn't change quickly, thus leading to consistent conclusions that can provide a long and steady supply of motivation. However, by nature, reason conflicts with inspiration, and such people, while having a stable inner drive, seldom have moments of inspired bursts.
And because their rational judgement of gains and losses is too clear, once they fall into an unfavorable position, they tend to overly focus on the negative outcomes, always planning extra contingencies and creating exit strategies, which diminishes their ability to turn the situation around or create miracles.
To correct these two overly extreme scenarios is simple. For the former, one should not use past events as stimuli, such as letting them wallow in hatred or miserable past experiences, but rather entice them with the as-yet-unrealized future. For example, let them focus on the successes of others, the lifestyles they enjoy, and the dreamlike visions of a beautiful future.
As the saying goes, "What one cannot have is always the best." If hatred, fueled by the past, serves as a source of motivation, once the hatred disappears or its true nature is realized, this driving force can easily vanish because hatred already exists and can be analyzed, and naturally, it can be eliminated.
But the future, which has not yet arrived, is something that anyone can imagine as they please. The human imagination can never be destroyed; as long as it does not exist, it remains invulnerable.
Long-term goals also help such people maintain inner motivation over time. Even if they may initially be quite eager, they're less likely to end up completely without energy or give up later on.
For the latter, however, it's essential to have them look back on the path they've taken. Most of the time, by only analyzing the current situation, one is bound to be limited to metaphysics. While how to do something is important, why one is doing it is even more crucial.
These people need to constantly remember why they started something and not just rethink their strategies with every new environment they encounter, weighing the pros and cons of each situation, or else they're liable to end up like a blind bear fumbling for corn—grasping one ear and discarding another, ending up with just one ear of corn in hand, feeling that they might as well give up as they're bound to starve sooner or later.
This applies to individuals as well as to organizations and companies. An emotionally driven collective must establish long-term goals, and a profit-driven company must always remember its original purpose.
Following this theory, Shiller certainly had a way to reverse Oliver's current situation, but the first step was to convince him that drinking to drown his sorrows was futile.
Shiller continued to steer the conversation towards the universe he belonged to, but Oliver simply wouldn't engage. In the end, an annoyed Shiller took his bottle of alcohol away from him.
Oliver noticed something was amiss. Squinting his eyes at Shiller, he said, "Who are you? You're not the Professor."
"I'm not. I'm just pretending to be him. But it looks like your relationship with him is only so-so. I've been talking my mouth off, and you aren't even paying attention to me," Shiller responded.
Oliver snorted coldly and said, "If you were the Professor, I might have already been knocked out by now."
Shiller was taken aback, then said, "No way, right? No matter what, you can't just hit people. A doctor can't beat up his patients."
"That's how I can tell you're not him. You have too much medical ethics," Oliver said slyly, blinking.
Shiller's mouth hung open—he had never expected to be praised for having medical ethics in his life. He decided to skip over that topic and said, "Alright, let's not beat around the bush. Don't you want to know who is backing Mexico in my universe?"
This was a topic that interested Oliver. He put down his drink and said, "They sound much stronger than the Soviet Union. Is it Cuba?"
Shiller knew that China was not even on his radar because, in both the Marvel and DC worlds, China was still very poor at the end of the 20th century. It hadn't recovered yet, with many areas where people couldn't even afford meat. To many foreigners, there was no difference from the Qing Dynasty.
As for what happened in the 30 years that followed, most people had no idea. It was as if a country had suddenly traversed into this world because, from either a theoretical or practical standpoint, such a rapid pace of development was impossible and completely unscientific, capable of overturning existing sociological theories.
Oliver naturally hadn't considered that Eastern Great Nation either, even though it was spared thanks to the Soviet Union. Situated on the brink of collapse, their pressure greatly reduced, they had more energy to invest in development rather than preparing for war. It was evident that they would develop faster than in the Marvel World, but they were just at the beginning.
The initial stage is inconspicuous. The extensive communication and educational projects are long and grueling without immediate results. During the process, there's no impressive PPT to show, nor is there excessive publicity, so experts and scholars naturally assume it was done overnight.
"I think you should come and see for yourself. You'll definitely be surprised," Shiller said confidently. He thought, even before humanity had entered the Age of Space Exploration, many of China's cities already had an almost alien-like technology compared to foreign countries. Now, as the interstellar age dawned, the major cities of that country hardly looked like they were on Earth anymore.
Though Shiller hadn't been there himself, Clark had gone there to 'borrow' internet access. When he came back, he rambled on to them for two or three hours. Just the thought of Shenzhen making a Kryptonian seem like a country bumpkin made Shiller want to chuckle.
Oliver was a wealthy scion. Hearing Shiller speak like this, he was somewhat disdainful. The Quin Group might not compare to Wayne Enterprises, but it was still a major global corporation. Before he was stranded on a deserted island, he lived a life of luxury and pleasure, so was he really going to be overwhelmed by a city on Earth?
Shiller didn't say anything, just opened a portal for him.